Persema Admits to Not Paying Irfan Bachdim’s Full Salary for Months

Jakarta Globe

Indonesian football club Persema Malang has admitted to not paying its
Dutch-born forward Irfan Bachdim for months, following the player’s
recent decision to leave the team to play with a Thai club.

“We
indeed haven’t paid Irfan’s salary, although honestly we’re not sure for
how many months. He’s been receiving salary from us, but not full,”
Dito Arief, assistant manager to the club based in the East Java town of
Malang, said on Saturday.

Irfan, 24, recently signed a two-year
deal with Chonburi FC, defending the move on Friday via his Twitter
account @IrfanBachdim10, accusing Persema of not paying him for eight
months.

“I didn’t get 8 months salary from Persema. Who will work
for 8 months without receiving money? I did because i love to play
soccer,” Irfan tweeted. “But now i have to make a statement that i cant
play anymore without getting money. Me and my family need to eat.”

While
Irfan’s decision to transfer clubs is legal under the world’s football
governing body FIFA — which allows free transfers for footballers who
have not been paid by their former clubs for more than three months —
Dito said the Thai Premier League club should have communicated with
Persema before making the deal.

“Although Irfan can transfer
freely, there should have been communications with his old club, because
this concerns two parties. The new club also should have communicated
with the old club,” Dito told Indonesian news portal kompas.com.

Irfan said that he approached Chonburi FC because he wanted to improve his career.

“Persema
is doing everything to ruin my career. If Persema wanna ruin my career
it’s hard to improve to give my best for Indonesia,” Irfan tweeted.

Irfan
will still play for Indonesia’s national football team in the AFC Asian
Cup 2015 qualifiers match against Iraq scheduled for Feb. 6.

“Try
to do everything for Indonesian football. Tomorrow [Saturday] i will
leave to Dubai to fight for our country!” Irfan tweeted.